From serendipity to rational drug design in brain disorders: in silico, in vitro, and in vivo approaches.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review without systematic methodology or primary human clinical data.
PubMed 34461562 · doi:10.1016/j.coph.2021.07.012
What was done
The authors reviewed methodologies intended to transition drug discovery for neurological and psychiatric disorders from historical serendipity to rational, hypothesis-driven design. The review focuses on integrating bioinformatics analyses, large reference databases, cell type-specific in vitro models, and in vivo animal models.
What was found
The abstract reports no quantitative metrics or empirical test results. It provides a conceptual overview arguing that integrating computational biology with specific cellular and animal models improves mechanistic understanding and target identification.
Why it matters
It highlights contemporary multi-modal approaches aimed at overcoming high failure rates in neurodegenerative and psychiatric drug development pipelines.
Limits
As a broad narrative review, the paper provides no systematic review methodology, no meta-analytic synthesis, and no new experimental or clinical trial data.
Cited by
- supports Since the 1970s, very few new pharmacological treatments have been developed in psychiatry compared to other fields of medicine.